Hey, All - how often are you guys having to add clutch fluid? My truck is only a month old and the fluid looks to be right in the middle of the 'Min' / 'Max' marks. Also, since I'm swapping my fluids (oil, diffs, T-case) to get the gunk out, should I go ahead and swap out the tranny fluid? It takes, 6.5 quarts, right?

Thanks

The ML6 ZF-6 Transmission takes 6.34 quarts (per All Data). I'm running Mobil 1 ATF. I've only added DOT4 once to the resevoir.

if you have over 30,000 miles on your truck then change all the fluids...but other than that I think its a waste of time. (but thats just me)
I very very rarely change my clutch fluid...only when my clutch seems to be soft to I check it.

Doesn't it say in the manual to change the clutch fluid at 25K. I think in the back where the maint. schedule is that is what it says.

I was 5K off in my book thats a grand slam!! lol

Thanks, guys - I'll probably go ahead and top it off. I find it a little weird that the fluid level has dropped in only a month of owning the truck (1500 miles).

JZG, mine did the same thing as yours. Found out the slave cylinder was leaking. The only way to access the slave cylinder is to pull the tranny. GM replaced my slave cylinder when they changed the first DMF.

I was also told that you cannot flush the clutch fluid because the bleeder is at the slave cylinder...accessed only by removing the Censored tranny...see a pattern here!!!!

I guess you could pull the fluid out of the reservoir and refill.

MaxRock

This is something maybe we need to ask one of the tech's. It says to change it at 25K, but are we supposed to bring it in and pay a big amount of $$$ for the dealer to do it. I suppose changing out what is in the reservoir would help, but wouldn't be anywhere close to ideal.

I guess if you changed the reservoir fluid a couple of times over a month or so, you probably would get the majority of the fluid changed.

That is a good question.

MaxRock

I finally got a bottle of GM DOT 4 clutch fluid from my dealer (had to order it). I topped off the resevoir & noticed that my clutch fluid was almost black already (a VERY dirty brown actually), while the new stuff was a golden brown. You think this is normal? Also, how do you change out the clutch fluid? From reading the posts, it looks like my only option is to change out the resevoir fluid??

Things that make you go...HMMM......:(

I've never had this apart, but in the manual it says that there is no bleeder value on the slave cylinder on the D-max for the ZF. It only shows it on a NV4500 equiped truck.

For bleeding/changing fluid they state that a tool that vacuum bleeds from the reservoir is used. I have not seen this or have any idea how it works.

Is a Micron V (5) synthetic blend ATF good enough to run on our transmissions? It was all I could find when I did my clutch job and I am going on a long trip in 2 weeks and I want to make sure this is good enough for my tranny. Any help would be great help.

Thanks
Nathan

Is a Micron V (5) synthetic blend ATF good enough to run on our transmissions? It was all I could find when I did my clutch job and I am going on a long trip in 2 weeks and I want to make sure this is good enough for my tranny. Any help would be great help.

Thanks
Nathan

Wish I knew the answer to that as well. I just picked up a small bottle of DOT4 from the dealership to top off the clutch fluid resevoir. When I asked them for 7 quarts of tranny fluid, (Transdyne I think), they just stood there looking at me, kinda like a dog that's not real smart. I told them it was the same fluid that the Allison uses and they started asking me why then I was buying clutch fluid for the Allison. They finally let me go back into the stock room to find it myself. None to be found :(

Let us know what you end up doing.

I believe that transynd is the fulid for the zf-6 (in other words, it's the same stuff allison sells) Not cheap at the GM dealer either (somewhere around 25 clams a quart as I recall..
JZG - Not to be a prick, but why did you order DOT4 fluid from your dealership?? DOT4 is available at almost any parts store in the country :confused:

Eric sells the Transynd for use in the ZF/6, and yes it does say Allison on the bottle. I bought some from him a while back. Fyi...

Tim

JZG - Not to be a prick, but why did you order DOT4 fluid from your dealership?? DOT4 is available at almost any parts store in the country :confused:

Don't sweat it, I didn't get any prick vibes from your reply. The reason I ordered it 1) - It's hard to find things here (auto parts shops aren't very good) and 2) Until my warranty is up, I'm trying to use mostly GM parts, that way I can keep a paper trail from my dealer in case any warrantu issues come up down the road. It is definitely pricey though. But not as pricey as dropping my truck off for the morning & having the dealer do it.

Yeah I scraped up the money and got GMs Syn trans. fuild. The dealer gave me a good price. He showed me that the dealer payed $9.20/ qt and he sold it to me for $10 I din't think that was too bad of a price for piece of mind.